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Once again this year, the Annual Banquet of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) brought together Muslim leaders and activists to hear about CAIR’s progress in protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans and to generate funds for its continuing work. Imam Siraj Wahhaj urged those present to donate generously.

Congressman Jim Moran addressed the problems of prejudice against, and ignorance about, the Muslim community, and advised increased participation in the political process. Dr. Iqbal Unus, Director of The Fairfax Institute at IIIT received CAIR’s 2011 Lifetime Service Award at this well-attended event in Arlington, Virginia, on October 15. Dr. Unus was recognized for his 41 years of service and leadership in the local, regional and national American Muslim community.

The event also honored the imam of the Tennessee mosque featured in the hour-long CNN documentary, “Unwelcome: the Muslims Next Door;” Kulsoom Abdullah, the Muslim woman weightlifter who CAIR helped win the right to compete wearing modest Islamic attire; Rais Bhuiyan, the Muslim partially blinded in a post-9/11 hate crime who forgave his attacker and worked to have his death sentence commuted; and the Muslim Community Center (MCC) Medical Clinic in Silver Spring, Md., which offers free medical services to people who don't have health insurance.